Memorizing

[musicsdarkangel]

Right now I am playing Franck's Symphony and Variations.

Usually I have descent memorization skills, but I have been working on this since September and I am only halfway through.

What technique(s) do you all use to memorize music efficiently?

[chopin2256]

Try finding patterns.

Know your key.

Know what it should sound like (can help you memorize quicker I think)

Practice measure by measure without looking at the score!  This will help you memorize everything even if you cant play it well.  You will find that you can practice a piece without the score if you accomplish this.  If you train your brain to not rely on the sheet music, it will do wonders.  It is almost the equivalent to memorizing a speech.  If you practice without looking, you begin to memorize it.

Break up scales, arpeggios, etc into two or more parts.  The first part may be 4 notes, the second part may be 3 more notes, instead of looking at it as a whole string of 7 notes.  Better yet, if this repeats, you have it made.  Believe it or not, its so much easier if you simply break up a "string" into your own creative 2 or more strings.

Don't move on until you finish somewhat memorizing a section.  If you keep moving on, you will just forget what you just did previously.  Once memorized, you will have it in your blood forever.

[Brian Healey]

Not to be "that guy" but this topic has been discussed numerous, numerous times. Just hit the search button at the top of the page and do search for the topic.

With that said, if you've been playing the piece that long, you must have a pretty good idea how it goes. Try imagining the music in your head while you're away from the piano. Maybe while you're walking to class or something (assuming you're in school), just run through the music in your head. Hear the music in your mind. Pretend it was some tune you just heard on the radio and it got stuck in your head. I find this helps me when I need to memorize something. You may ask, "Well, how can I do that if I'm having trouble memorizing the piece?" The answer is simple: you already know the piece, you're just having trouble with recall. By practicing going through the piece in your mind, you're helping to get rid of that block in your mind that happens when you sit at the piano.

[musicsdarkangel]

I'm sorry, I guess I'm just a newbie.


Excellent advice, thanks.